A retrospective view of the 1951 Festival of Britain on the South Bank with special reference to design and architecture


This movie is part of the collection: British Government Public Information Films

Director: Maurice Harvey, Jacques Brunius
Production Company: Massingham Productions Ltd
Sponsor: Central Office of Information and The Observer
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Language: English
Keywords: Festival; Britain South Bank Exhibition; design; architecture

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Reviewer: mendacious - - September 27, 2012
Subject: Social history
Apart from the wobbly music [understandable], the film quality is very good for the time, and allowing for the fact that nightime filming with natural light, was a problem.

I thought that making the two men the sort of, focus, was a good idea. I enjoyed the narration, but most of all, the social history. As I was seven at the time, my memory was stirred concerning the people, the way they dressed and comported themselves and the little boys with their caps and their short trousers. And yes, ordinary people did behave themselves.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - May 22, 2008
Subject: hurray.
Interesting film here about an exposition in London. Seems like the main focus was to distract Londoners from their droll and mundane lives in England. It certainly SOUNDSS that way in the narration. Were things THAT bad in England in the late 40's??

Reviewer: Visual16 - - September 22, 2006
Subject: Worth watching, despite garbeled soundtrack
I have enjoyed this one on DVD, primarily to look closely at the great detail of this amazing 1951 fair-exhibition. Pro camerawork, requires swapping PAL 24 frames to NTSC 30 frames to burn to disk here in the USA. We are observing the healing process for England after the devastation of WWII. Very highly recommended for anyone involved in architecture and design.

Credits

Public Information Films